SThree extends its global footprint with help from SAS Global Communications

London - SAS Global Communications, an international provider of managed network and professional services, has announced that its provisioning and relationship management services have been a key enabler for the rapid and efficient international growth of recruitment firm SThree. Since assuming responsibility in 2009 for provisioning sites on the company’s BT network, SAS now takes charge of 46 sites on the estate, and a further five are planned for 2012.

“In the last six months we’ve put in circuit orders for Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Luxembourg and we’ve probably had to provision another five or more new offices because of relocations ,” said Garry Lengthorn, manager of information technology at SThree. “Without SAS managing this process for us, we’d probably need two or three more people to do the admin.”

According to Garry, one of the major benefits of working with SAS has been its service relationship management function and since first engaging with the company, SThree has been able to improve the efficiency of its provisioning and billing processes to such an extent that the company has saved somewhere in the region of £400,000 in carrier service charges.

“Having an SRM gives us a single point of entry into BT that’s dedicated to dealing with issues and helping us move forward with existing orders,” said Garry. “Typically with other IT companies, you’ll be given an account manager to talk to about issues but they’re not really interested because they want to talk to you about sales.”

With operations already established in 15 countries worldwide and a voracious appetite for growth, Garry feels that SThree’s relationship with SAS will continue to play a pivotal role in the successful expansion of the company.

“SAS helps us to be more efficient and more reliable in the delivery of new services to new offices because it understands how a carrier works and knows how to manage the hierarchy and the processes,” said Garry. “If we tried to do it ourselves, it wouldn’t be as easy to scale and it would definitely cost more.”

“What’s also good about SAS is the consistency; with a lot of suppliers we would have seen a change of staff and a change of focus after two years of working with them. People stay at SAS; they know our account and they care about it – that level of continuity is very important to us,” said Garry.

"We operate in an industry that has a reputation for rapid change, and we support and embrace that – but only as it serves our customers, our employees and our business,” said Charles Davis CEO for SAS Global Communications. “As a managed services organisation, we probably have one of the lowest staff and customer attrition rates in our sector at two and four percent respectively; we believe that’s because we continue to focus on our core competency and have remained true to the values our customers and employees associate with SAS.”